BrandlandUSA

By Garland Pollard

Ever since it closed in 2005, folks have missed the Bermudian department store Trimingham’s. Fodor’s 1961 Guide to the Caribbean, Bahamas and Bermuda stated that the store had a “wide selection of bargains including doe-skin gloves, perfume, English handbags and Indian Madras sportswear.”

The store opened in 1842, and was known not only as a traditional department store for Bermudians, but a top stop for visitors.

We would love BrandlandUSA readers to do some sleuthing in Bermuda as to great old brands that are still around, or are gone. Other great Bermudian retail brands still around to look out for, and support, include:

• William Bluck & Co., a China shop that opened in 1844. (It’s still around.)
• The jeweler Astwood-Dickinson (still around)
• A.S. Cooper & Sons, Ltd., which stands for Alexander Samuel Cooper, and is the successor company to Bermuda Finishing and Supply Company (still around).

We are still searching for information on:

• The Cedar Shop
• Hildred, the children’s shop
• The English Sports Shop
• Peniston-Brown Co., Ltd.
• The Bermuda Shop
• H.A. & E. Smith, Ltd. (gone)

And while we are thinking of Bermuda brands, lets not forget the Furness Bermuda line, and it’s great ships the Queen of Bermuda, Monarch of Bermuda and Ocean Monarch, which sailed from Piers 95-97 in the afternoon and arrived in Bermuda 40 hours later, with schedules perfectly timed for weekend jaunts. We only wish one of those Celebrity or Carnival numbers would do a little renaming and get on the Bermuda route regularly.

You know, at one time B.O.A.C. flew jet-prop Britannias from New York. We think it would be darned amusing if British Airways still flew the route, though right now they only fly from Gatwick to Bermuda. New Yorkers would pay a premium to fly on a 3 p.m. flight from Kennedy to Hamilton.

More branding stories of interest: